INDIANAPOLIS – Former University of Oregon great Ashton Eaton bettered his own indoor heptathlon world record with an amazing two-day performance that concluded Sunday in Tallinn, Estonia.
Eaton, who last week defeated reigning Olympic decathlon champion Bryan Clay and 2009 World decathlon champion Trey Hardee at the Millrose Multi Challenge at the 104th Millrose Games in New York, rode that momentum to a world record Sunday in the indoor heptathlon of 6,568 points. Eaton’s performance easily bettered his previous world record of 6,499 points set at last year’s NCAA Indoor Championships, March 12-13, 2010, in Fayetteville, Ark.
Eaton began the competition Saturday by running a personal best 6.66 seconds in the 60 meters, which gave him an opening tally of 1,007 points. The next event was the long jump, where Eaton soared to 7.77 meters/25 feet 6 inches, which gave him 1,002 points.
The third event was the shot put, which was key for Eaton, who posted a personal best distance of 14.45m/47 feet 5 inches, which was worth 756 points. Day 1 concluded with Eaton clearing 2.01m/6-7 in the high jump, which gave him a first day total of 3,578 points, which was a 17-point improvement over his world record setting effort in 2010.
Day 2 began with a stellar effort in the 60m hurdles, which saw Eaton set a combined events indoor world record of 7.60 seconds, which added 1,085 points to his total.
Eaton matched his personal best when he cleared 5.20m/17-0.75 in the pole vault for 972 points before concluding his world record effort with his right fist raised over the final 30 meters of the 1,000m run that he completed in 2:34.74 (933 points).
Eaton quotes:
"I'm so happy! I had a great day. I think this was a great experience. I am most proud of the way I competed, after some bad events I was able to come back and perform well today. I made some bars in the pole vault on third attempt when I really needed them. I also think this shows that I have a lot of room to improve.
“I had a bad high jump, I took off way behind the board in the long jump, I could have run better in the 1,000m, and although the shot put was a big personal best, I know I can keep getting better.
“These fans here in Estonia are great. They have such a great tradition of decathletes and really support the event. Ever since I stepped off the plane I liked this place. I felt like the crowd was really behind me the whole way, they were pushing for me and I think that is why I did so well. I did not want to disappoint my new fans. Nothing quite compares to my home crowd in Eugene, but Tallinn was a close second. Now it's time to go home and get some rest before we start our preparations for outdoors. First I need to make the U.S. team, then it's onto Daegu where I hope to make the medal stand and hopefully be on top."
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